Saturday, December 28, 2013

Crepes on Cole

(No official web-site available.)

Place: Crepes On Cole Location: 100 Carl Street (on the corner of Cole Street)Hours: Open everyday at 7:00am (well, I can only assume they are open everyday at 7:00am from information obtained from a few other local on-line services that list this joint; their hours of operation are not listed either on their menu nor anywhere on their door/windows ~ seriously, people, how hard is it to get an official web-site these days?!)Meal: Basil (a savoury crêpe) ~ Cheddar, Onions, Basil, Tomatoes, Spinach, and Feta Cheese (served with House Potatoes & Mixed Greens with vinaigrette); and a cuppa the house Coffee (whatever brand it was; I forgot to ask and, of course, there is no official web-site from which to find it out now)

(Bet you can't guess the relationship between today's two EweToob videos and today's breakfastary destination. Yup, both songs were arranged by that famous bandleader Carl Spackler.)Because I didn't really feel like going too far and they (hopefully) are open early every morning, I had breakfast at Crepes on Cole ~ A Crepery. Well, "Crêpes on Carl" would be more accurate; they have "Crêpes" (and "Crêperie", which they also have misspelled) without the cîrcûmflêx (the little hat accent mark thingy). They are located just down the street from Zazie (see last 'blog-entry from November 16th, 2013) and near the West Portal of the N-Judah MUNI Metro light rail line.Crêpes on Carl has a pretty large dining space. There is seating inside for 50-60 people and another seven sidewalk tables that seat two each. Behind the order-counter on the back wall, there is the stereotypical colourfully designed blackboard menu from which to order. And like most crêpe places in the city, you order and pay first at the counter, they give you a number to place on your table, and then they bring the food out to you when it is ready. There were a few other savoury crêpes ideas that I was looking at (no, literally; I couldn't help but look at them as they were on the wall right in front of me): Greek Delight (Cheddar, Onions, Artichoke Hearts, Black Olives, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, and Feta Cheese); Cole Valley (Provolone Cheese, Onions, Sun driedTomatoes, Pesto Sauce, Avocado, Mushrooms, and Spinach) and Mediterranean (Cheddar, Onions, Eggplant, Pesto, Tomatoes, and Roasted Peppers). They also offer omelettes, other egg dishes, and a few weekend specials on the blackboard, as well as dessert[1] crêpes and blintzes.

Spinach and basil? I was skeptical of this actually working well together, but it ended up being a very nice combination of flavours. As the name dictates, I probably would have liked a little more basil and less spinach in it (and this coming from a long-time, Popeye-brainwashed spinach-lover). Otherwise, all of the fresh ingredients worked out nicely, and, of course, Feta goes with everything (of which there was a decent amount inside).The House Potatoes were a pretty good version of homefries; chunky and crispy. The Mixed Greens were just the ubiquitous mesclun greens ~ nothing I really can't "make" myself at home. Meh! There was a huge pile of the junk overflowing the edges of the plate. I probably should have asked if they could have 86-ed[2] the stupid greens and given me more of the good potato stuff.Crêpes on Carl only has Tabasco®Brand Pepper Sauce (the standard red) for condimentary supplementation. I came prepared with a few of my own and used some Hula Girl Chipotle Habanero (Thanks, Jim!) inside the crêpe and some Pickapeppa Sauce (Thanks, Amy!) on the potatoes. The Pickapeppa Sauce is the newest in my arsenal; I just received it at Christmas. It's not particularly spicy, but has a lot of sweet, fruity flavour to it; sort of a cross between a Worcestershire sauce and A.1. Steak Sauce®. Ingredients: cane vinegar, sugar, tomatoes, onions, raisins, sea salt, ginger, peppers (hence the "Picka…" moniker, Peter), cloves, black pepper, thyme, mangoes, orange peel.http://www.pickapeppa.com/Regretfully, Miss Otis was also unable to come out to breakfast this morning, Madam. (See? It's stuff like this why people don't want her hangin' around much any more.) Apparently, no one crêpes on poor ol' Carl and gets away with it, Madam.Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Basil (savoury crêpe) ~ 6.41. Stupid, useless cunning linguist/phraseologist pointer of the day:Did you ever wonder where the term "Just Deserts" came from? I saw something linked on defacedbook this morning about several archaic words that are still used in English today; however, their meanings are not always as they were once meant to be.The word "desert" in this case is neither related to an arid, sandy location, nor a sweet after-dinner pastry. The word comes from Old French "deserte", the noun use of feminine past participle of "deservir" (meaning “to deserve”).Now how many people here truly knew that? I always thought the correct spelling was "just desserts", myself. I know that when I do a good deed that I would like the idea of receiving a "well-meritedKey Lime Pie".Thank you very much for this information, Miss McCambridge!2. Not really falling into the stupid, useless cunning linguist pointer of the day category, but in case anyone else ever wondered where the term "86" came from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/86_(term)